Back-seat driver welcome on road trips

During a recent vacation, we took day trips to Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Grove City.

In the summer, car trips include driving with the windows down, even on the highway. I may be part-Labrador, but I love wind whipping through the car.

Doug's not crazy about the windows-down part of our trips, but he endures it. And I'm grateful.

He even selected David Bowie's "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" on our iPod and blared it on the way home from a vacation-week visit to Ellicottville Brewing Co.

Pure bliss.

Until our passenger Garmine interrupted to remind us to head north on Interstate 86.

She's such a know-it-all, but she's a great navigator. She never gets hungry, never falls asleep and doesn't need rest stops.

You've probably figured out by now that "Garmine" is our Garmin GPS.

There's still an atlas tucked in the pocket behind the driver's seat, but most of the time we put ourselves in Garmine's capable hands. She's been packed in my carry-on bag for trips to Las Vegas, San Antonio/Austin and California. She's guided us on car trips to New York City, New Jersey and South Carolina.

Some of our friends are appalled by this. Garmine recommends routes they wouldn't take. They say they'd rather use a paper map to chart their own course.

Doug usually previews the route Garmine recommends and follows it on a paper map, to make sure he agrees with her plan.

She's failed us on only two occasions.

The first was understandable. She couldn't find the AT&T Center -- with the useless address 1 AT&T Center Parkway -- in San Antonio, Texas. The hotel concierge gave us a different street address, and we made it to the Spurs game with time to spare.

The second time was actually during the same Texas vacation. We plugged in the address for a hotel in Austin, and things were going swimmingly until she said, "Arriving at destination on right." The problem: We were in the middle of an eight-lane highway with no exit in sight.

I called the hotel, and we found our destination a few minutes later.

As it turns out, the area had recently completed major highway rerouting and no one had told Garmine.

She pouted a bit because we'd ignored her and turned down her volume. But we love her anyway.

SHERRY RIEDER can be reached at 870-1722. Send e-mail to sherry.rieder@timesnews.com.